Years of domestic abuse ended in tragedy on Friday night when a 48-year-old woman was murdered in her Martyr’s Ville New Scheme, Mon Repos, East Coast Demerara (ECD) home by her husband, who then took his own life.
Dead are Malini Wahid, a mother of two who was witnesses say was beaten and then strangled, and her husband, 50-year-old Balram Heeralall, called ‘Nappy.’
Wahid, a domestic worker and caterer, and Heeralall, a clothes vendor, were said to have been married for more than 25 years and they shared two children, who reside overseas.
The fatal altercation occurred around 20.30 hrs at the couple’s home, which neighbours say was secured by Heeralall to prevent Wahid from leaving.
Family members and neighbours told Sunday Stabroek that Heeralall would abuse Wahid during regular arguments. The Guyana Police Force (GPF) yesterday also confirmed that Heeralall was before the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court for assaulting and threatening his wife. Their last court date, the police said, was on Friday.
This newspaper was told that the couple had been advised to seek counselling but Heeralall was reportedly not willing to participate.
According to the GPF statement on the tragedy, after the couple returned home from court on Friday, Heeralall left to ply his trade. He later telephoned Wahid and informed her that he was involved in a vehicular accident with a horse and asked that she meet him at Triumph Public Road, ECD. However, the police said Wahid refused.
The report explained that Heeralall returned home with his car and complained of feeling a pain in his chest. Wahid rubbed it and offered him some tea, which he refused. The police added that Heeralall then requested to go to the doctor with his car and wanted Wahid to accompany him. The report said that Wahid insisted on taking a taxi instead and an argument ensued between the couple.
Shortly after, the police said Wahid shouted out for help and a neighbour jumped the fence and saw Heeralall choking Wahid. He was reportedly telling her to die. She eventually became motionless.
The neighbour, Sattie Sugrim, yesterday recounted that the last thing she told Wahid was to be careful as it appeared that Heeralall was up to something.
Sugrim had a nine-day celebration at her home on Friday night for her granddaughter and Wahid visited with a gift. Sugrim said she offered Wahid some food and she left for home by 7pm.
A few minutes after, Sugrim explained that Wahid called out for her and told her Heeralall was involved in an accident. “…She want me fah go with she. Me tell she me nah go, let me daughter go with she but she didn’t want that,” she said.
She related that Wahid sent a taxi to check on Heeralall but the driver did not see the man when he arrived at the location. As a result, Sugrim added, Wahid was about to go herself when she saw Heeralall returning through the street. “She (Wahid) open the gate and he [Heeralall] go park inside [the yard]. So she seh ‘Nappy wah happen? Yuh reach up in accident?’ And he start perform,” Sugrim recalled.
She said Heeralall started to complain about stomach pains and he insisted that he wanted the keys for one of the other vehicles to go to the hospital. “Eventually, he seh he nah bother want go doctor….I tell she, ‘Malini this man tricky, you know. Be careful with he…’ Meh tell she this man up to something,” she recounted.
‘One big holler’
According to Sugrim, Wahid made tea for Heeralall, rubbed his stomach and gave him tablets for the pain. Subsequently, Heeralall told her and her daughter to go home. “…By time me walk and pick up a towel from the door, me hear one big holler. He slam she into the wall, he tramp she down to the ground,” she said.
Sugrim, who could have see the commotion from her house, shouted to Heeralall to leave Wahid and to open the gate and let her in. He refused.
She said she then scaled the fence and veranda to get to the house but she couldn’t get inside since the door and grill were locked. “Me nah know wah fah do. It nah got nobody around hay fah save she… She call me name, she call me husband name, she call me daughter name fah save she… Me seh this thing nah look good at all,” Sugrim said.
She added that she pleaded with Heeralall to let go of Wahid. “Me seh ‘Nappy loose Malini, nah?’ Me nah see she face… all me see she ah call me with she hand. Meh beg am. When he knock the door, he hear me but he nah open… Me couldn’t see she face… Me and he eye mek four. Meh seh ‘Nappy open this door, nah?” Sugrim related. “Top she he went, he get up but he nah open the door. He turn back and she nah been dead at the said time. He vice she back again… Meh holler, ‘Left she, nah? But he nah pay me no mind,” she added.
Sugrim’s daughter called the 911 hotline but they said the police took more than an hour to arrive.
The couple were rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where Wahid was pronounced dead on arrival. Heeralall subsequently succumbed at the hospital.
‘Real brutalize’
Sugrim told Sunday Stabroek that she and Wahid lived like sisters and the woman would confide in her. “She can call me 2 o’clock when he put she out. I does always watch out for she,” she said.
She described Heeralall as a controlling individual who would accuse Wahid of having relationships with other men. “He was controlling. “Anytime she deh talking to me and he come home and see she, she got to run. He come home and she bathing, she got to run and open that gate for he. If she nah open dah gate, he curse she,” she said.
According to Sugrim, she advised Wahid often to get help but she would say she was afraid of Heeralall. “If you see thing wah me send she. Meh seh Mal go nah, go see if you can get help. You can’t deh like this. Anytime me send she, she nah go. She frighten he. If she deh town, he got to drop she and pick she up back. He don’t want she go anywhere. He nah trust she,” she explained.
After court on Friday, Sugrim said she even advised Wahid to move from the house. “Meh she, ‘Mali, move out from dah house…’ She seh she want freedom. He nah want she wuk and talk to nobody and suh. She must be home all time,” she added.
Another neighbour, who wished not to be named, told this newspaper Wahid was a strong woman who endured years of abuse.
She said quite often when the couple argue and fight, Wahid would leave the house but she always returned. “She was a strong woman. He use to beat she a lot—fan, chair, anything you could think of, he used to pelt she down with. Real brutalize,” the neighbour said.
Meanwhile, the dead woman’s mother, Elsie Durga, said over the past two months Wahid was back and forth between home and her place. “When she go back, she would say mom I can’t bear it I coming back,” Durga said.
Every time Wahid tried to escape, Durga said, Heeralall would threaten her or her relatives and in fear she would return home.
“One time where she working, he get the phone number and he call the boss and tell him a whole set of thing…..He try to degrade her. He even break her phone and he was hiding from police because he was already in the court,” she added. “Well, it come to a closure now. He decide to kill her.”
Reports were made to the police but Durga said Heeralall would always get out on bail and continue with the attacks. “Once police come and break the door and take him to the station. He get charge and then put on bail. His family will bail him and he would come out. And then same thing over and over,” she said.
Wahid’s death occurred on the last day of local observances organized to mark the annual international 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
